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Ed Sheeran takes on the touts

The promoters of Ed Sheeran’s UK 2018 stadium tour have cancelled up to 10,000 touted tickets to put back into the primary market. Kilimanjaro, DHP Family and AEG Presents confirmed in a statement that they were cancelling any touted tickets to the sold out stadium shows. The promoters told fans to only buy tickets from primary sellers or their approved secondary site, resale platform Twickets which re-sells at face value.

Viagogo was targeted by Sheerhan’s team after eBay’s StubHub and Live Nation’s Seatwave and Get Me In! agreed to the musician’s request to block touted tickets.

The promoters statement reads: “[We] and Ed Sheeran’s team worked closely together in advance of the on-sale date to put in place measures designed to protect fans from profiteering companies”. Noting that “most profiteering companies heeded the promoters’ warnings not to trade and resell tickets that would instantly be cancelled”, the statement adds: “This has resulted in 90% of tickets being delivered directly into fans’ hands at the face value” and “Despite these efforts, it has become clear that one company, Viagogo, have ignored the promoters’ requests, and there is an increasing number of customers who are realising they have been duped by Viagogo’s false advertising and have unfortunately become victims of massive hidden overcharging for tickets”.

The false advertising claim relates to Viagogos use of the word ‘official’ in its advertising, although the tout argues what this means is that its platforms are ‘official’ Viagogo sites in its top ranking Google advert.

Promoters also said “All ticket resales that have been identified as breaking the newly updated Consumer Rights Act have been reported to the Competition And Markets Authority to aid their ongoing investigation into companies such as Viagogo”.

Sheeran’s management team became particularly vocal supporters of the campaign against secondary ticketing after touts resold tickets at massively inflated prices for the musician’s charity show to support the Teenage Cancer Trust.